Airport express connection - lost connectivity to iPad with iOS6 a while ago now lost connectivity to Mac with iTunes 11.1?

No idea if our issues are related, but today I've also lost connectivity to an Airport Express (it's perhaps 3-4 years old?).

Sequence of events:

• No problems noticed until today.
• Yesterday: upgraded iTunes to 11.1, and my iPhone and iPad to iOS7. I don't remember if I used Airplay yesterday or not.
• This morning: wife couldn't use Airport Express / Airplay with her iPhone, which is still on iOS6.
• I opened the Airport Utility - and hey, there's a firmware update! (From two months ago?!). Did that - and airplay started to work.
• But now, this afternoon, nothing works with the Airport Express / Airplay: not iTunes 11.1, not an iOS7 iPhone, not an iOS7 iPad, not an iOS6 iPhone. With iTunes, I get a message that it times out; with the iOS devices, nothing really happens - the device behaves as if it's working, but no sound is coming out.

Note the Airport Express still has a green light, and is rated as in Excellent condition by Airport Utility.

I now have this exact same problem...

My mac to my airport express was working fine up until I performed the update to iTunes 11.1. Now when I select the airplay speakers from the drop down menu I get this error:

The airplay device 'X' cannot be found on your network. Please verify your network settings and Airplay configuration or select another device. (Typed out for people who are looking on for this issue on search engines).

Though my newly updated iPhone on iOS 7 can use the airplay fine without any issues.

So since the new update my phone can use the speakers but my Macbook Pro can't? Help!

I'm also experiencing problems. Since upgrading to iTunes 11.1 I can no longer stream to my airport express. It just times out. Although I can send audio from my iPhone to the airport express via airplay. The airport express has a green light and reports that it has a strong signal.

Interesting mix of problems: what confuses me is what's actually broken. If iTunes 11.1 broke AirPlay, why has my wife's iOS 6 iPhone also stopped working? Others have no problems with their iPhones, yet in our household, AirPlay simply doesn't work at all, no matter what device. I suppose there's an off chance our Airport Express has just decided coincidentally died at the same time as all these updates happened, but I believe the last time that happened the green light also disappeared. My computer's utilities think the Airport Express is working just fine - but it times out when trying to use AirPlay.

It's iTunes 11.1 that's not talking nicely with the airport express.

I can connect my macbook (running iTunes 11.05) to my iTunes library on the PC (running 11.1) via home sharing, then send the audio from the macbook to the airport express via airplay.

I can also send the audio from my iPhone's music player on the handset (iOS7) to the airport express via airplay.

The only thing that doesn't work is sending audio from iTunes 11.1 to the airport express via airplay. This includes using the 'Remote' app on the iPhone (it works as if it's sending audio, although no audio plays on the airport express).

My situation seems to have been solved, for now at least, by doing a hard reset of the Airport Express. More detail on what I did here. My problem wasn't quite the same as yours, but this approach may work - it's just another version of the old turn it off and on trick. Good luck!

FIXED: My bad, it was Windows 7 at fault. the windows firewall was blocking airplay. I fixed it by opening windows firewall from the control panel and deleting the iTunes rule, then adding a new rule for iTunes.